Canada's wartime legacy ripe for pillaging

In a free society, citizens share a common history. Though
this history may be told from many points of view, every action has objective
reality and the sum total of all events is the birthright of every citizen.
History belongs to everyone equally and as such is--or should be--open to
unfettered enquiry and defended against deliberate distortion. To borrow a
medical metaphor, history constitutes the genes that make up a citizen's
"cultural DNA."

Unfortunately, cultural DNA is vulnerable to "genetic
engineering." In the hands of an ignoble government, historical images and
events can be manipulated to serve political objectives. George Orwell said it
best in 1984 : "He who controls the
present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." This
is how we should understand the federal government's decision to reapply the
"Royal" adjective to the Canadian navy and air force.

According to its advocates, this nomenclature reversal is
designed to overturn the pernicious effects of the 1968 Trudeau government's
amalgamation of the military. Logistically and politically, the decision made
sense at the time because all three branches competed with each other for money
and resources. Yet, it had the unnecessary, demoralizing effect of stripping
the military of their uniforms and culture. All military personnel were forced
to adopt a hideous green uniform, derisively called "Glad Bags" when I was in
the Naval Reserve, and the branches were given soulless, generic titles: Royal
Canadian Navy became Maritime Command, Royal Canadian Air Force became Air
Command, and the Canadian Army became Mobile Command.

Part of the reason for the royal reversal undoubtedly came
from lobbying by veterans like Michael Smith of Toronto, who said it was
important that the military remain in touch with its history:

"The Royal Canadian Navy" is the navy that fought in the
Battle of the Atlantic. If there had been no victory at sea, there would have
been no victory in Europe. The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air force that
fought in the Battle of Britain. Those historical titles are now reality, and
those who are currently serving can be connected to that pride, to that
history, that tradition. The distinctiveness has come back, and there's a lot
of meaning in those titles."

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Stephen Harper's Defence
Minion Peter MacKay said essentially the same thing when he made the
official announcement in August : "I believe that this is about continuity.
It's about respect for our past. And I believe that this is something that the
majority of Canadians will embrace."

If we look strictly at undoing the superficial effects of
the 1968 amalgamation, a case can be made for it, albeit a weak one, given that
the renaming of Maritime Command and Air Command does not require the "Royal"
monicker. In addition, the timing of the change is suspect, given the lack of
any public movement to rename the military, to the extent that Canadians pay
any attention to the military.

If we look a little deeper, we realize that the Royal
reversion has precious little to do with respecting the past or rediscovering a
distant military pride, as MacKay, Smith and others would have us believe. It
has everything to do with bastardizing the past. The Canadian military Smith
admires so much died on the battlefield long ago. These Canadians fought at
Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, hit the beaches on D-Day, liberated The Netherlands,
and sailed in the WWII convoys, and did so proudly in the name of fighting
aggression. How does the legacy of this virtuous "Royal" Canadian military of
yesteryear find any connection with the modern Canadian military, which bombs
Libyan hospitals, blockades Palestinian relief convoys, and mistreats Afghan
detainees?

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The Dutch still love Canadians for liberating them from
occupation. Now Arabs in Palestine, Libya, Iraq and Lebanon need someone to
liberate them from Canada and the rest of the NATO Imperial Assault Force.
Smith hasn't noticed that the "Royal" Canadian Navy and Air Force he remembers
fought fascism; now they abet it.

After World War II, Canadians helped found NATO and were
among the earliest supporters of the UN, the rule of law and liberal
internationalism. Now, Canada is a leader in rationalizing genocide, subverting
the UN and serving as Israel's most enthusiastic cat's paw.

The images and legacy of Canada's honourable military past
dwells within each Canadian, but now these will be debased and mutated and
their meaning will be sullied. There is no "continuity," as MacKay claims. There is rupture.

Behind the propaganda curtain of "restoring" Canada's
military pride and tradition is the appropriation of military history to
justify the sort of aggression honourable Canadians gave their lives to defeat.

Greg Felton is an investigative journalist specializing in the Middle East, Canadian politics, the media and language. He has been a progressive political columnist for two decades, and his articles have appeared on informationclearinghouse.com, (more...)